2002-02-10 The Plain Dealer must be carrying the same art work. I also noticed their description of the various events in FFU. It is really disgusting.
John ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2002-02-10 14:54 Subject: [USMA:18125] AP's "Spotlight on:" Olympic Events > Dear AP Editor: > > I have been enjoying the AP's "Spotlight on:" feature, written by Janet > Hamlin and Peter Santilli, in my local paper. These have been providing us > with very succinct descriptions of each sport. They accurately portray the > sports in the terms used by the officials and announcers, enabling me to > better understand each sport and thus to enjoy it more fully. > > The only glitch in them, until today, was that the elevations of the venues > have been given in feet instead of meters, so I ignore that part. The newer > topo charts use meters, by the way. > > Today's feature was totally trashed by an awkward conversion of the luge > track length to feet. I have taken the trouble to look up the Olympic rules > and find that the track length for men is to be a minimum of 1000 m and a > maximum of 1300 m. Your feature stated the length was "4,318 feet". Yuchh! > Not only is that an ugly number, according to my calculations it is about 16 > m too long. > > You also stated that luge speeds could reach "90 mph" instead of reporting > this in kilometers per hour (km/h). > > It's time for AP to shed their perception of American sports enthusiasts > as stereotypical "dumb jocks" and to make sure that their reporting is > accurate. The Olympics Games are metric, which befits their international > status. So please stick to metric and quit "dumbing down" your newspaper > feeds. That way you would be following the guidance in your own AP Stylebook. > > James R. Frysinger >
